The Pyramids

I didn't come to Middle East to see the ancient Egyptian ruins so to see these world reknown monuments of an ancient civilization is just icing on the cake for me. We took a bus right up to the biggest pyramid and one of our professors, Dr. Ramadan Hussein, met us there to tell us about everything. Dr. Ramadan is the Director of the National Project for Documentation of the Antiquities of Egypt at the Egyptian Supreme Council for Antiquities and he had alot of excellent information for us. He also seemed carry alot of clout. He led our group of 20 up to the front of the line to go in the pyramid and none of us had to pay. He just showed the guard his ID. A similar scene played out when we went to see the sphinx. To get to the sphinx from the pyramids we got to take camels. It was about a 30 minute ride, but I enjoyed every second. Camels are about twice as tall as a horse and can move just as quickly if less gracefully. Throughout the day I took about 30 pictures so these are the ones I thought were most worth uploading.



This handsome young man was kind enough to pose for me from the camel departure area.



Where all those people are lined up is where we got to go in. Unfortunately cameras weren't allowed inside but I felt like Indiana Jones. Pictures can't do justice to the immensity of these structures that have stood for longer than I can conceptualize.

Here we all are riding our camels. As you can see from the background Egypt has alot of sand. Some would say too much sand. I wasn't able to get a picture of myself on a camel but I know others took pictures of me so I will be able to prove to you at some point that I was indeed riding a camel.

As we headed to the bus to leave I got this picture.

That's it for now. I started classes already today and have another class later this evening. I'm not sure how often I'll collect enough interesting things to post but I'll do my best. I'll leave you with a list of random interesting things I've seen so far.

-A goat was slaughtered on the sidewalk
-A bunch of school children sprayed each other with shaving cream (I think) during reccess
-An ambulance stopped in the middle of the street, siren blaring, and an EMT stuck his head out and yelled "Fein sharia il-dokki?" (Where is dokki street?)
-A police man took away a German-speaking tourists camera after he took a picture of a post office
-Workers dismantling a billboard, dropping huge pieces onto the busy street below where other workers were frantically trying to direct Cairo traffic around the pieces.